No one at the wheel, part II

“Brace yourself. In a few years, your car will be able to drop you off at the door of a shopping center or airport terminal, go park itself and return when summoned with a smartphone app,” wrote Dan Neil in a recent Wall Street Journal article.

As that technology heads inexorably to the highway, Neil celebrates the safety issue of a roadway navigated by computer cars. “In 2011, Americans were involved in 5 million auto accidents, with more than 32,000 killed,” he noted.

Along with safety, the driverless car will usher in other changes. Issues such as automobile ownership, insurance and licensing will all be affected.

Why own a car if you’re only using it now and again? Neil points out that Google, a big player in the autonomous-auto field, has invested heavily in a car-sharing service.

As for insurance, Bloomington-based State Farm, a company that insures more vehicles than anybody in the country, speculated in a 2011 article that a driver’s record would no longer be scrutinized as it is now when cars drive themselves.

Young people would be in the same risk pool as your Sunday morning driver. At the other end of the spectrum, the very old wouldn’t have to worry about those eye tests at the license bureau.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda is given a ride in Nissan Motor Co.’s autonomous driving car at a car show in Japan on Oct. 1, 2013.

Speaking of licenses, why would you need one to be a perennial passenger? States better think about what they’ll need to do to replace a sizable revenue source.

All of these changes will take time, of course. The first thing we’ll see is a period when manned and unmanned vehicles share the same road. That should be interesting when we have accidents between humans and robots. Who do you think the cops will believe?

Down the road, I can even see highways posted: “for safety reasons, autonomous vehicles only.” Of course, there’ll still need real live state troopers to enforce that law.

Author: Steve Tarter

Born in England, raised in Boston, I'm a Midwestern transplant who's called Peoria home for the past 40 years. Married with four grown children, I enjoy journalism, film noir and radio drama. As the song goes, I like coffee; I like tea. Former president of the Apollo Theater in Downtown Peoria, I'm looking for a new raison d'etre.
View all posts by Steve Tarter